


Safe and Sound

by nebulaesailor



Category: Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates
Genre: Babies, Family Cuddles, Family Fluff, Father-Daughter Relationship, Gen, Newborn Children, overly doting dad sumeragi, sumeragi is the best dad anankos who???
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-30
Updated: 2018-01-30
Packaged: 2019-03-11 10:29:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,792
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13522350
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nebulaesailor/pseuds/nebulaesailor
Summary: After the birth of his newborn daughter, Sumeragi tries to get the child to sleep without waking his slumbering wife. Thus he reflects on his relationship with Yukiko as he spends the morning with her.





	Safe and Sound

**Author's Note:**

> The whole Anankos is your dad plot twist will always be the stupidest plot twist to me in Fates besides Azura being your cousin even though you are able to marry her. Sumeragi will always be my real dad and the game can go fight me behind a Denny's dumpster. Also, Mikoto is Sakura's and Takumi's mom, fight me. God, I just love the idea of Sumeragi: The Overly Doting Father Who Loves His Kids So Much. There just needs to be way more Hoshido family honestly.

Sumeragi reached into the crib as the baby’s chubby arms reached out for him with a small whine. He cradled the young child close to his chest as he hummed a tune to lull them back to sleep. It had been a while since he had to take care of a baby, and honestly, he missed it. He had forgotten how small and helpless they were, too weak to even hold their heads up. His chest felt tight to point it was suffocating, he wanted to protect her from everything that might hurt her. He paced the bedroom as Mikoto slept soundly with young Hinoka in her arms, not wanting to interrupt her already limited sleep as well as Hinoka who became intolerably grumpy when woken up early. This was his third child while this was her first. He wanted to take that burden off of her since he couldn’t help but feel guilty about getting her pregnant so soon after she lost a child in childbirth before they married. She was so neurotic about Yukiko after she was born that he had to ask Ryoma to watch the child while he begged her to at least take a nap. She had already gone a solid twenty-four hours without sleep and was on the edge of losing it. He sent out a prayer of thanks to the Dawn Dragon that she was at least asleep now.

Yukiko wasn’t full-on screaming but she was wide awake and wanted attention. Sumeragi bounced the child and slide open the outside door, walking out into the cool dawn air and sitting down in the exterior hallway. He sat in a meditative position and placed Yukiko in his lap, propping her up with his arm. Every morning, he did his daily meditation as he had done for years but lately he had been doing it with Yukiko because she seemed to like it for some reason and it got her to calm down. With every breath he breathed in, she would rise with his rising chest and fall with it when he let it out. It seemed to lull her better than any lullaby that was sung to her by Mikoto. In that way, he couldn’t help but be proud and a slightly bit snide, after all, Yukiko was the first child to prefer him over their mother. For that, he couldn’t help but be all the more attached and overprotective. 

Time seemed to stop when he meditated, especially when it was with Yukiko. Sometimes a solid two hours would past and he would only stop because Mikoto needed to feed Yukiko and plucked her from off of his lap. Though today it seemed however that it would be cut short. She squirmed and wiggled in his lap until she let out a wail, and he was back to trying to get her to sleep. He got up with a grunt and gathered the child into his arms as he paced the hallway, rocking her and humming under his breath. He was used to waking up at the crack of dawn but he really didn’t want to wake up the rest of his family at such an early hour, especially Mikoto. He started to walk to the gardens as it was away from the royal residential quarters and Yukiko seemed to get a kick out of it whenever she went there.

Sumeragi walked through the walled entrance as the sweet smell of flowers and plants, wet with morning dew, hit his nose. He walked the gravel path as Yukiko finally stopped crying and started to coo as she started to reach for flowers that they passed. He couldn’t help but find a smile gracing his lips as he plucked the flowers she was interested in and held them up to her to examine. The red peony that he was currently holding up to her really got her attention as she took it from his hands and started to eat it. 

“No, Kiki! Don’t eat the flower!” He lightly chided her as he pulled it out of her mouth and onto the ground. 

Yukiko let out a cry and was back to fussing as Sumeragi mentally smacked himself up the head for disrupting the fragile serenity that they had only seconds before. He bounced her slightly as they came into view of the massive sakura tree that acted as the centerpiece of the whole garden; the tree was ancient, being planted in his grandfather’s time and was the exact same size when he was a child. He brushed off the pile of petals that covered the bench under the tree and sat on it, letting Yukiko’s head rest in the crook of his elbow as a low lying branch dangled a foot from her face. Sumeragi let out a deep sigh as he closed his eyes for a second to rest. He could hear Yukiko cooing and aahing as when he opened his eyes, the girl was trying desperately to grab at the flowers that very clearly out of her reach. He chuckled to himself as pulled off a bloom, holding it up to his nose and smelling it.

“Ah, sakura blossoms are my favorite too. I wanted to name you “Sakura” because you were born the day they bloomed but Hinoka wanted to name you “Yukiko” because there was still snow on the ground. There was no point in arguing with her.” He talked to her as he let her smell the blossom and touch it but moved it out of her grip before she was able to put it in her mouth. Her pink little tongue poked out the side of her mouth as her little fists gripped his yukata, he felt his heart melted in his chest.

“You are so cute you put even the sakura blossoms to shame!” He placed his face against hers and nuzzled her, kissing her on the forehead which made her let out a happy squeal. He couldn’t help but look up at her with proud eyes as she gave him a toothless grin.

“I am so lucky to have you. I didn’t even think you would survive after you were born so small and sick that night. I held you through that entire night, praying to the Dawn Dragon for you to survive. But here you are, as tough as a samurai and fierce as a dragon. You’re a fighter like your dad. I know you’ll do great things.” Yukiko looked up at him with curious eyes, giving him only a smile, not knowing the meaning of the words he was telling her. 

Sumeragi didn't have favorites and loved his children equally wih every fiber in his being, but he never been this protective or obsessive when Hinoka and Ryoma were born. Perhaps it was because she had come so close to death that he was terrified of losing her or the fact she had taken such a liking to him and preferred to be held by him than Mikoto. He always wanted her there with him because he felt if he let go of her for a second she would be gone. It was this irrational fear that led him to taking her to every court session he could bring her to and made him wake up in the middle of the night to make sure she was breathing. He in his own way was as neurotic as Mikoto. 

“You look beautiful in flowers, my daughter.” He said to Yukiko as he tucked the flower behind her pointed ear. The pink of the sakura matched the scarlet of her eyes and fit nicely with her olive complexion. He thumbed her chubby cheek as she let out a yawn. 

Yukiko looked at him with half-lidded eyes as he got up from the bench and headed back towards his room where he knew Mikoto would be and he as well as Yukiko was tired. As he left the garden, he looked back at the sakura tree which slightly swayed in the breeze. He thought of his earliest memories sitting on his mother’s lap as she told him folktales and legends of his ancestors’ exploits in battle and diplomacy. She was a wry clever woman with a tongue of silver, able to weave stories like some women could weave tapestries. He couldn’t help but feel it was a shame that his father didn’t see that brilliance in her like he had. Instead only caring about making his harem larger and finding the prettiest concubines to amass to his collection. Perhaps that's why he stayed loyal to Ikona until her death even if he hadn’t truly loved her. It was a breath of fresh air when he married Mikoto since he adored her with all his heart and Yukiko was the result of a union of love rather than obligated emotionless sex to produce an heir. 

These thoughts troubled him so but he let them die and shrivel up as he saw the curve of Mikoto’s back as she lied with her back to him, Hinoka snoring like a hog in her arms. Sumeragi’s feet were light and silent on the tatami mats as he laid down next to Mikoto and placed an already asleep Yukiko on his chest. His heavy eyelids were about to close shut until he heard the light patter of feet on the floor and the soft breathing of a child inches from his face.

“Father, are you awake?” Ryoma asked as he kneeled beside his father who turned his head to face his eleven-year-old son.

“Yes, Ryoma, what do you need?” He asked, trying not sound annoyed as he did not want to get up after he had just lied down. 

“Ummm...is it okay if I lied down with you?” Ryoma mumbled as his cheeks turned red and he averted his gaze away from his father.

Sumeragi couldn’t help but chuckle at his son’s embarrassment at wanting affection. The boy tried to act like he was an adult and was beyond hugs and doting even though he knew that the boy adored attention. Such as when Sumeragi would give him piggyback rides back from the training grounds after he worked himself to the point of exhaustion and Mikoto would kiss his cheeks and give him a hug when it was bedtime. He just lifted up the blanket and let Ryoma cuddle into his side and rest his head on his shoulder. He again let his eyes closed shut as he finally allowed himself succumb to exhaustion. A smile graced his lips as everything finally felt right in the world and he didn’t have to worry about his family as they were all there. Safe and sound.

**Author's Note:**

> On a side note, Sumeragi didn't hate Ikona. They just didn't love each other. It was an arranged marriage and they deeply respected each other, but it was entirely formal and loveless. Ikona died of illness when Hinoka was two and he married Mikoto even though she was pregnant with another man's child (aka Anankos's). That child died in labor and she got pregnant with Yukiko two months later. Yukiko is roughly a month old, Hinoka is four, and Ryoma is eleven.


End file.
